Arrival At Cape Crauford — Robert Janes’s Last Journey (Part 3 of 4)

KENN HARPER

On March 4, Robert Janes passed Adams Island in Lancaster Sound, 10 days into his desperate bid to leave north Baffin Island by dog sled. He would travel by sled as far as Churchill, and from there overland to Winnipeg, then home to St. John’s.

Away Goes February – Robert Janes’s Last Journey (Part 2 of 4)

KENN HARPER

Robert Janes had embarked on a difficult journey south from his trading post near Pond Inlet.

Travelling by dog sled, with one Inuit guide, and heavily-laden sleds, he would travel through Admiralty Inlet, Igloolik, and the Keewatin coast to Churchill, and from there to Winnipeg, and on to St....

Escape From The Arctic — Robert Janes’s Last Journey (Part 1 of 4)

KENN HARPER

Robert Janes was born on Gooseberry Islands near Glovertown, Nfld., and first traveled to the Arctic as second mate on the Canadian government ship, Arctic, under the famous Captain Bernier in 1910. From the English term “second mate” came his Inuktitut name “sakirmiaq.”

The Tragic Fate of Maggie Clay

KENN HARPER

Maggie Clay loved the north.

She arrived in Chesterfield Inlet with her husband, RCMP Staff Sergeant Sidney Clay, in the summer of 1924. They had already lived in the north for many years, at Fort Norman, Fort McPherson, and Herschel Island, before coming to Hudson Bay to take charge of the post...

An Esquimaux Vocabulary for the Franklin Search

KENN HARPER

On May 30, 1850 the aging Arctic explorer, Sir John Ross, wrote a note to Captain Charles Codrington Forsyth of the Royal Navy, who was about to depart for the Arctic on the Prince Albert on an expedition sponsored by Lady Franklin, in search of her missing husband, Sir John Franklin.

Nancy Columbia, Her Name in Lights

KENN HARPER

Nancy Columbia was the best-known Inuk of her day. Her time in the public eye lasted from her birth in 1893 to her effective retirement from show business with her marriage in 1922. Her career peaked over 100 years ago when, still in her teens, she wrote and starred in an early silent film, The Way...

Farley Mowat and the North, an appreciation

KENN HARPER

Farley Mowat, who died on May 6 just five five days shy of his 93rd birthday, was a giant among Canadian writers. He wrote 45 books, and over 15 million copies were sold worldwide. Farley wrote in many genres — and in some cases he created those genres.

Meeting Farley Mowat

KENN HARPER

I met Farley Mowat, who died two weeks ago at 92, only a few times. The first was quite memorable.

It was in the spring of 1974, my last year of teaching in Arctic Bay. In that year the most interesting teachers’ conference of all time took place in Iqaluit — interesting because the guest speakers...

The Bear in the Ice Hole — Conclusion

KENN HARPER

Last week I presented the story of Knud Rasmussen falling into a hole in the ice with a polar bear, and of how he came to see the empathy and gratitude in the polar bear’s eyes when he caused his dogs to back off and apparently saved the bear’s life.

The Bear in the Ice Hole

KENN HARPER

One of my favourite stories as told by Knud Rasmussen is not a retelling of an Inuit legend — although there are many that are memorable — but rather a recounting of one of his adventures while on a hunting trip.

It took place in northern Greenland. Rasmussen was on a bear hunt with Qulutanguaq,...

Rules of Life among the Qaernermiut

KENN HARPER

Earlier columns have described Knud Rasmussen’s time spent among the Paadlermiut in the interior of the Kivalliq Region, on his major ethnographic expedition of the early 1920s, the Fifth Thule Expedition.

But Rasmussen also spent considerable time among the Qaernermiut of the Baker Lake area, and...

Wooden Maps

KENN HARPER

Gustav Holm was a Danish naval captain who made his name as an explorer of Greenland. In 1876, at the age of 27, he took part in Steenstrup’s geological expedition to the Julianehaab District of south-western Greenland, on which he recorded Norse ruins.

The Fifth Thule Expedition — The Great Sled Journey

KENN HARPER

In early 1922, Peter Freuchen and Therkel Mathiassen each explored north from Igloolik, including parts of Baffin Island. Mathiassen spent the summer excavating at Repulse Bay, then travelled with Jacob Olsen to Southampton Island, where they became stranded until February of the following...

The Fifth Thule Expedition – The Caribou Inuit

KENN HARPER

Inuit love to name strangers in their midst, and by very early in the Fifth Thule Expedition, all the Danes had acquired Inuktitut names. Knud Rasmussen, known in West Greenland as Kununnguaq and in the Thule District as Kunupaluk, became known to Canadian Inuit as Kunu or Kunut.